Duterte in dilemma as VP quits Cabinet
Dhaka to share heist data
MANILA, Philippines, Dec 5, (Agencies): The Philippine vice-president resigned her Cabinet post Monday after citing irreconcilable differences with President Rodrigo Duterte, who had banned her from attending Cabinet meetings, in a new political dilemma for the leader.
Leni Robredo, who stepped down as housing secretary but will stay on as vice- president, spoke of “major differences in principles and values” with the brash-talking president and an unspecified plot to remove her from the vice- presidency. There was no immediate reaction from Duterte.
In her resignation letter, Robredo told Duterte that she “exerted all effort to put aside our differences, maintain a professional working relationship and work effectively despite the constraints.” But she said Duterte’s order banning her from Cabinet meetings had made it impossible for her to do her job at the housing agency.
“Remaining in your Cabinet has become untenable,” she said.
A human rights lawyer and respected political newcomer, Robredo said Sunday that she would stay on in her elected post as vice-president. She was set to hold a news conference later Monday to explain her action.
In the Philippines, presidents and vice presidents are separately elected and often come from rival political parties, like Duterte and Robredo.
Robredo
“I will not allow the vice-presidency to be stolen. I will not allow the will of the people to be thwarted,” Robredo said in a statement Sunday, without elaborating. She did not include the allegation in her resignation letter.
Aside from Robredo, Patricia Licuanan, the head of the government’s Commission on Higher Education, said that she learned through a text message that Duterte had also banned her from attending Cabinet meetings, but that she would remain in her post.
Robredo’s resignation comes amid a political storm over Duterte’s decision to allow the burial of longdead dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the country’s Heroes’ Cemetery and a bloody crackdown against illegal drugs that has alarmed Western governments and human rights watchdogs.
Robredo is the second official to resign from Duterte’s administration in less than a week. Maria Serena Diokno quit as head of the government’s historical commission last Tuesday to protest Duterte’s decision to allow Marcos’ reburial in the cemetery.
Diokno has since joined street protests by anti-Marcos groups condemning the secretive Nov 18 burial.
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Bangladesh will share findings from its investigation into how unidentified hackers pulled off one of the world’s biggest cyber bank heists to help speed up recovery of the stolen funds, its law minister said on Monday.
Bangladesh has up to now declined to disclose its findings of an inquiry into how the hackers used stolen Bangladesh Bank credentials to try to transfer nearly $1 billion from its US Federal Reserve account in February.
Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, who last week met a Bangladesh delegation led by Minister of Law Anisul Huq, said Manila “strongly recommended” Dhaka share the results of its investigation.
While the Bangladesh central bank, the Bangladesh Bank, had previously declined to release any inquiry findings, saying it wanted to deny the perpetrators knowledge of the investigation, it would now do so, Huq told Reuters.